FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — She didn’t stand a chance. Her right thigh mummified in rolls of tape, Kim Clijsters had injured her quad prior to the 2001 U.S. Open, and though she bravely limped into the quarterfinals, she was about to meet the defending champion. At 18, the Belgian was in over her head. She had reached her first Slam semi three months prior at Roland Garros, but this was different. This was New York. This was Venus Williams.
Clijsters had never faced Williams before. And it showed. The American intimidator, then 21, waltzed to an easy 6-3, 6-1 win, and later went on to defeat her sister Serena for her second straight U.S. Open title.
Few could have guessed it would develop into a storied rivalry.
Coming into Friday’s semifinal, the former No. 1s had split a dozen career head-to-heads right down the middle. But despite her tailored-for-hard-courts game, the power serving Williams hasn’t won a U.S. Open title since. Clijsters has won it twice (in ’05 and ’09), beating Williams en route to both. The Belgian retired, had a baby, then re-joined the tour after a 27-month layoff.
Nine years later, Clijsters is no longer that wide-eyed 18-year-old. And on Friday it showed, as the athletic veteran outlasted Williams 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 to earn a shot at her second straight U.S. Open title, a feat, ironically, last accomplished by Williams in ’01-’02.
She’s come a long way since 2001.
“The thing is, when I was younger, almost 10 years younger, the impact of the powerful strokes was something that was a lot more powerful at the time because we weren’t used to that,” Clijsters reflected. “I played juniors when I was 13, 14. Then all of a sudden, you’re playing against Venus, Serena, the big girls. At the time I wasn’t able to deal with it.”
Clijsters managed only five points off Williams’ serve in the first set, and the world No. 4 converted the only break point of the set when Clijsters netted a slice volley at 3-all.
Williams showed few ill effects of the knee problems that kept her on the sidelines after Wimbledon, but let down her guard when it seemed to matter most — in the second set tiebreaker. Trailing 1-0 in the stanza, she double faulted twice and never recovered as Clijsters forced a third set.
Clijsters fought off a break point at 1-all in the final set, and subsequently scored a break of her own when Williams dumped a backhand into the net. But seemingly in control, the nerves seemed to get the best of the No. 3-ranked 27-year-old, who twice double faulted to give away a break and even the set a 4-4. But just when it appeared to be slipping away for Clijsters, she directly broke back with a highlight-reel backhand lob that sailed up into wind, over an outstretched Williams’ head and dropped just inside the baseline.
“It’s instinct when you decide to do that,” said Clijsters. “It was an important point. You can also put a little bit more behind it, because I was hitting against the wind at the time. You can really hit a little harder than I would usually do, and a little flatter as well.”
“I felt like I was trying to be aggressive in that last game, and I came in three out of five points,” recalled Williams. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. She was playing against the wind, so it just blows the ball back in. It was kind of a little bit of bad luck for me.”
Serving for the match up 5-4, Clijsters punctuated a long baseline rally with a down-the-line backhand winner and raised her fists to the Flushing sky.
Clijsters will ride a 20-match U.S. Open winning streak into the final, where she’ll face Russia’s Vera Zvonarava, who reached her second consecutive Grand Slam final with a straight sets 6-4, 6-3 upset of top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
